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Numbers Picked for $820 Million Mega Millions Jackpot
One of the largest lottery jackpots in U.S. history grew even larger on Tuesday, after no one matched the Mega Millions numbers: 3, 5, 6, 44 and 61, and the gold Mega Ball, 25.
The new jackpot is $910 million, the eighth-largest ever, and is expected to increase before the next drawing, on Friday night.
The growing Mega Million jackpot, which no one has won since mid-April, comes after a single ticket won $1.08 billion in the competing Powerball lottery last week, a jackpot that was also among the largest in history.
Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in the multistate Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries in recent years, because of changes to the games and higher ticket prices. Between the two lotteries, seven jackpots in the United States have reached $1 billion or more since 2016, including four in the past two years.
Here’s a look at the 10 biggest U.S. jackpots ever.
The largest lottery jackpot to date, a Powerball drawing, was won on Nov. 7, 2022. The ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, Calif., just north of Pasadena.
On Feb. 14, California Lottery officials revealed the winner’s name, Edwin Castro, but did not release further information about him at his request.
The second-biggest jackpot, also a Powerball, was split three ways. The winning numbers were drawn on Jan. 13, 2016, matching tickets bought in Chino Hills, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles; Munford, Tenn., north of Memphis; and Melbourne Beach, Fla., on the Atlantic Coast.
“I think we can all live on $528 million, don’t you think?” Russ Lopez, a spokesman for the California Lottery, said at the time.
The largest Mega Millions prize was the third-largest jackpot overall, with the winning ticket drawn on Oct. 23, 2018, in Simpsonville, S.C.
The prize was not claimed until March of the following year, when an anonymous winner came forward through a lawyer, opting to cash in a one-time lump sum of $877,784,124 instead of taking payments over 30 years.
A single ticket-holder won an estimated $1.35 billion in the Mega Millions drawing on Jan. 13, 2023. The winning ticket was sold in Lebanon, Maine, according to state lottery officials.
A winner came forward a month later, but chose to remain anonymous, officials said. The person collected the prize, through a limited liability company, as a single cash payment of $723,564,144 before taxes.
The winning Mega Millions ticket on July 29, 2022, was sold in Des Plaines, Ill. After several weeks, an anonymous winner came forward. Illinois is one of several states that allow lottery winners to keep their names and addresses confidential.
After three months without a winner, a single ticket sold in Los Angeles won the Powerball jackpot on July 19. It was the third-largest Powerball jackpot, behind November 2022 and January 2016.
The winner has not yet come forward. It was the second time in eight months that a winning ticket for a billion-dollar-plus jackpot was sold in Los Angeles County.
The winner could opt to take the payment as a lump sum, which would be about $558.1 million before taxes, according to Powerball.
A group identified as the Wolverine FLL Club of Oakland County won just over $1 billion in the Mega Millions drawing on Jan. 22, 2021, after buying a ticket in Novi, Mich.
Without a winner since April 18, this is the current Mega Millions jackpot, its fifth-largest. Taken as a cash payout, the prize would be $464.2 million.
Manuel Franco of Wisconsin won a $768.4 million prize in the Powerball drawing on March 27, 2019. The sum was enough for Mr. Franco to quit his job within two days of winning.
Wisconsin has no law protecting the identities of people who win lotteries, which means Mr. Franco was required to come forward publicly.
A 53-year-old health care worker from Chicopee, Mass., became a multimillionaire when she won the Powerball jackpot on Aug. 23, 2017. The winner, Mavis Wanczyk, opted for a lump-sum payment of $480.5 million. After taxes — 25 percent to the federal government and 5 percent to her state — she took home $336 million.
Eduardo Medina, April Rubin and Mike Ives contributed reporting.
Posted on 26 Jul 2023 06:43 link